Something very important, something vital is missing from my life. My camera. About a year ago my husband bought me a Olympus tough tike because I am clumsy and always have my camera. As such, my camera and I take many tumbles together and I have managed to break quite a few. Add to this scenario two toddler girls, and you can imagine how frightened I had become for my poor, dear camera. My husband, in his infinite (okay, occasional) wisdom decided I needed, literally, an unbreakable camera. This camera can be dropped from five feet. This camera can go several feet underwater. It can be frozen. And it’s cute to boot.

The only problem is…it doesn’t work. For the second time since I have gotten it, I’ve had to send it off to be repaired. In fact, this camera isn’t actually my original, but a refurbished one that I received because they were taking too long to fix my original camera, and I was off to Disney World. How can one go to Disney World without a camera? To my way of thinking, how can anyone go anywhere without one?

Being that that is the case, perhaps you have already guessed my dilemma. I literally feel like a fish out of water without my camera in hand. A few times a week I will forget and dash off to find it before I remember that it isn’t here. And even if it was, it wouldn’t do me any good. I had been borrowing my mother-in-law’s camera for awhile before hers, too, stopped working. I know what you’re thinking, and I am not a camera jinx. At least…I don’t think I am.

Breast vs. Bottle, a classic debate, but I’m not going to venture down that road, because frankly I think every mom chooses based on the information she has and I leave it at that. Let’s say you are pro-breasfeeding, are you then pro-public breastfeeding?

Perhaps it is just me, but the cover vs. no cover issue seems to be getting pretty heated, and it has left me baffled. I have recently returned from a 3 year stay in England, so I may be particularly susceptible to noticing things out of my norm, but my boobs have gotten more looks in the past two weeks from women then they ever have gotten from men. I nurse in public, without a cover, all the time. I promise you I’m not trying to make a statement, I just find it easier, I have big hooters and squirmy kids, battling with a cover is just not on the top of my to do list. Furthermore, trying to quiet a hungry baby until I can find a hiding place just seems like more work than I want to do with two older kids, plus if I find a hiding spot that means I have to stop what I’m doing.

While in England people would actually not notice me nursing, we would talk and they would eventually look down at the baby and notice, but it was never a blurp in the conversation, it just seemed viewed as a fact of life. I was breastfeeding my baby with no super-ninja like clothing, so side boob, top boob, and basically any boob not in baby’s mouth was going to be seen, depending on the shirt I was wearing. The point is I never once felt looked down upon, or uncomfortable for feeding my child.

I recently bought my three oldest kids a magnifying glass. Kairi just runs around the house playing with but I have several ideas for different science projects I want to do with the older two kids and we did one of those projects recently.
We bundled up and went outside for some backyard winter science lessons. We took the magnifying glass to the snow and looked at the snow outside in our backyard. I talked about how all snow flakes are different and that it takes billions and billions of snow flakes to cover our yard in snow.

I explained to them that snow starts out as water vapor, ice crystals and dust. Ice crystals form when water vapor freezes on tiny pieces of dust and snow forms in very cold clouds that has very cold water droplets and ice crystals. The water droplets and crystals collide and stick together. When they fall they are what we call snowflakes.

We were gifted a Baby Bullet for Christmas and I really love it! We have been making our own baby food every since my second child was old enough for solids. I was using my blender which did work but I do have to say having this little system is so much better.

Being a mom with four young kids you can imagine I am busy, this system has made making my own baby food easy and fast. The large batch bowl can be filled enough to make about 1 week worth of food at a time, the storage containers are fridge and freezer safe, the batch tray is perfect for freezing extras for later and the spatula makes clean up a breeze. It came with two books, the manual/cook book and the pocket nutritionist. Both are filled with a lot of great information and the recipe book has lots of great ideas for meals for your little one.

The last batch of baby food I made was banana. I just broke a large banana in half, stuck it in the large batch bowl and pureed until it was ready. The baby bullet cookbook recommends using water with the banana but I found it was thin enough without the water. The large banana without any water filled three of the baby bullet storage containers. One was used right away and the other two went in the fridge.

The thing I think I like the most about the storage containers is they have a date dial on them. That way I always know which food was made on which day and I do not have to worry about sticky notes falling off the jars in the fridge or freezer.

Being that it is an election year I am sure many will see the title of this post and think I’m encouraging you to go out and vote for your favorite candidate for President. I am definitely all for encouraging people to go out and vote, but that is not the type of voting I am referring to.

This evening I saw a friend post on Facebook a link about Hungary destroying Monsanto GMO corn fields. That friend had posted that he hoped that the United States would do the same. As much as I would love for our food supply to be GMO free I don’t see that happening in our near future. Americans tend to overeat and not generally on healthy food, but on processed, sugar filled, artificially flavored food. This food comes in plastic, aluminum, cardboard, and other various packaging. This processed food is void of nutrients and the ones that are artificially added are not readily absorbed by our bodies. Americans like convenience and as long as we like convenience more than we value our health I suspect that GMOs will be around for a long time.

I want to add that this post isn’t aimed at bashing Monsanto. Honestly, I’m not a fan, however, they are producing the food we are asking for. Well, atleast we are not telling them any different, right? Think about it. When you go to the grocery store what type of foods are you purchasing?

My husband and I are getting very excited about the idea of completing our family! Since our last two pregnancies were unplanned, we didn’t really experience the fun of trying to get pregnant, and the eager anticipation that comes with it—though I can also say that we certainly didn’t experience the stress that can come with trying to conceive, either.

We were walking around Target today and I came across some onesies for a little boy that I thought were just adorable! In the past I have always scoffed at boys clothing and declared it “un-cute” but since we both long for a boy, I am seeing things in a different light this time. I typically am not one to buy things before I know the sex of the child much less even being pregnant! However, today I decided to splurge. Maybe if He sees me buying things for my “son” God will take the hint!

My husband says that I research too much, but I like to be well informed. I am already taking an inventory of the things we will need. I intend to chart my fertility and my Basal Body Temperature a few months prior to actively “trying” to get pregnant so that we are better informed about when we got pregnant. To this end, I will be stocking up on ovulation predictor tests and pregnancy tests. I am going to buy in bulk through Ebay so that it doesn’t cost a fortune. Ovulation predictors were fairly new when we were TTC our first child, and we spent over fifty dollars for a two-week supply! Talk about a good way to go broke quick!

It’s time to get some new lingerie. I know this, because every time we go to a department store my husband can’t help but steer me in that direction and comment on what he thinks looks nice. I love his idea of subtlety! Honestly, I think it’s cute.

I am not really a lingerie girl…to be honest, I have a drawer full that I rarely wear. Why? I guess because I don’t often plan out sex, it just happens. To decide to wear lingerie is sort of planning on a certain type of outcome. Maybe it all boils down to laziness!

I am working out (as mentioned in previous posts) but I am still overweight. Shopping for lingerie at Victoria’s Secret makes me feel…awkward. You know how it is, right? Without a doubt the day I decide to enter the store all the eyes of the beautiful, perky, perfect girls will slide my way and they will, in a moment’s time, wonder what the heck I am doing shopping at their store. One of the salesclerks will politely ask if she can help, while wondering if I will tear the merchandise by trying it on.

I have changed my major twice in a six month period. I have been taking college courses at the urging of my husband, who wants me to have a degree in case I ever have to support our children on my own. Initially I entered into the business program, because I enjoy working with money and know that I am good at it. Also, my husband has a business degree, so he certainly could point me to a good job upon graduation.

However, even though I have been doing well in the classes ( I have a 3.0 which I am very proud of considering I am taking care of two children and working while taking online classes) my heart just isn’t in it. An accountant makes a lot of money, I know that, but I know from experience that money don’t buy love (as the saying goes). Sure, I believe I would be good as an accountant, but in the end who am I really helping by crunching numbers all day? The only thing I’d be helping is my bottom line.

I want more than that. I want a job that fulfills me. Do any of you know where I am coming from? I want to make a difference and contribute in a positive way to society. I want to take pride in the work that I do. Now, granted currently my job is to be a wife and mother, and that should take top priority. I also know though that once the kids are in school I am going to want to have something to occupy my time.

A while back I was visiting with a friend that I had been close with when I was younger. For many years, we were like sisters. Her father even referred to me as his “other” daughter and took me along on some of their family vacations. We were playing a game of “remember when” when she said, “Hey, I remember when we promised neither of would ever get married or have children.”

I shot her a look of disbelief, because at this time I had been married for six years and had two children. “What?”

“Yeah. You don’t remember?”

“No,” I replied honestly, unable to even fathom that I’d ever said that. I’d wanted a family as far back as I could remember.

Tonight I happened across an old journal of mine that is roughly twelve years old. And as it turns out, she is correct. Right there, in black ink in my own handwriting were the very words: I don’t want to ever get married or have children. The reason? Because when I was a kid all my parents ever seemed to do was fight. And when I say fight, I am misusing the term. They had blood baths that seemed to last for days where they would say anything that could think of to hurt one another. It often ended with us packing our bags and leaving with my mom for a few hours until she either calmed down or realized that my father wasn’t coming to get her.

In the wisdom of a fourteen year old I’d written that in order to avoid repeating this mistake I would never marry, and never have children in order to avoid causing others to suffer as I had as a child. I don’t think I could handle it, knowing that I’d put them through that when I remember how badly it hurt me growing up.

We used to use Netflix exclusively, which until recently offer unlimited instant viewing as well as two Dvds a month for an astonishing bargain of $7.99 a month. Of course, when Netflix realized what a deal this was, as they were bound to as they were putting their competitors out of business, they decided to increase their prices. Now if I want the same plan, I will double the amount I’m paying to them to around $16 a month.

Now, while this still might seem like a good deal, an increase of 100% just upsets me. After all, while it is still no where near the prices of cable, I am a stay at home mom with a family of four to feed on one income! Back in the good old days, J and I would buy—yes buy—any movie we were interested in seeing. I am ashamed to admit that we frequently spent fifty to a hundred dollars on movies. Even worse is that we ended up hating at least half of them and then giving them away or donating them.

I can hardly fathom that I ever lived like that and can’t imagine ever doing it again, even if one day we have enough money to roll around in just for sport. The only excuse I can offer is that we both had good paying jobs, few bills, and nothing to spend it on but frivolous whims.